


Our Masks

by SerialKillerQueen



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (Probably not medically accurate), Alternate Universe, Billy survives season 3, Canon Rewrite, Captivity, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Inspired by Dexter, Neil gets what he deserves, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Tags May Change, Title might change too lol, Torture, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-11-26 01:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20921696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerialKillerQueen/pseuds/SerialKillerQueen
Summary: For as long as he can remember Billy Hargrove hasn't been... right.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stranger Things and its characters do not belong to me. All rights go to their respective owners.

When Billy Hargrove is eighteen he gets possessed

When he’s eighteen a girl who see right through him frees him, and he does the first selfless thing he’s ever done and drags the otherworldly monstrosity away from her.

When he’s eighteen he almost dies, it is only ‘the gate’ being closed that saves him, prevents his heart being pierced.

Billy Hargrove is nineteen when he moves out of his father’s house, finds a cheap house of his own.

He makes sure it’s somewhat remote, makes sure it has a basement.

He puts his father in it, in a nice little cage he spent the last few months constructing.

Those that know what happened to him in the summer would potentially think it was being possessed that caused him to snap.

But for as long as he can remember, Billy Hargrove hasn’t been exactly ...right.

(Maybe he’s not the only one).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this literally walked up to me and punched me last night demanding I write it? I've had the idea of a semi Dexter AU in my head for a long time but then I started watching You and it wouldn't shut up. However that is why it's so short and I hope you enjoy nonetheless. I finally get to treat Neil like I've always wanted!
> 
> (This is only very vaguely inspired by You in terms of technical stuff like the cage, it won't have any of the plot aspects nor stalking. All rights go to their respective owners).
> 
> /cries because I have multiple other things I need to be working on/


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heed the warning tags.

Billy starves his father for a couple days, only gives him the minimum required amount of water.

Eventually Neil’s threats die down, he weakens. (He’s getting scared, he’s realizing how bad this is for him but he hasn’t started pleading, he will, just needs some time).

It’ll help him correct his previous mistake.

For all his planning he rushed into this, an urgency (an _excitement_) pushing him. 

He should’ve done more than put Neil in his cage, he should’ve restrained him from the jump, but he can fix that now.

There’s potentially an irony in him having to hand feed the man, not that Neil was _ever_ the nurturing type.

But he wants him alive, for now. 

He’s going to let him stew for a little bit longer though. 

He has a sister to pick up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was done so /shrug emoji/ The next chapter might be longer! I hope you enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This qualifies as sibling fluff right?

As soon as they’ve driven out of Susan’s view Max’s face changes, not as drastically as his does, but she becomes a little bit colder, a little bit more blank.

No point in putting on a show in front of him right?

(He remembers the day he met her, when having a little sister suddenly didn’t seem so bad because he looked into her blue eyes and saw the same thing he saw in the mirror every day. She was like him, he had no doubt about that).

He doesn’t wear his mask in front of her either most of the time. They always used to play up how much they “hated” each other, just to be safe, (and because it’s fun, and because Neil wouldn't try to keep them isolated from one another if he thought they couldn’t stand each other anyway), but they never had. They _needed_ each other, needed someone who could understand.

Of course Max’s mask fits her better than his own ever has, she feels things more easily than he does, more naturally, but not like other people do.

(It’s why she’d seen through him right away just like he had her).

However anger is another thing they share. Something that easily breaks through the numbness, the apathy, the simple not giving a shit, that so defines them.

He played it up, the same way she acts like he scared her once, but when the anger was real she’d end up with a bruised wrist and he’d end up with a small, bloody, puncture from the needle that she likes to keep hidden in her pocket, the end wrapped to keep it from jabbing her if she fell off her skateboard. 

Fair, they’re fair to each other and if she ever drew blood first she would let him bruise her wrist just as he’d let her cut him.

Normal people would probably condemn them, but they’re not normal and they can’t navigate normally, as much as they pretend otherwise.

When they get to his house her eyes are inevitably drawn to the basement door. She doesn’t _know_ but she suspects. He would if their positions were reversed. 

“Mom filed a missing persons report on Neil last night.”

She’s not asking, he knows her and if she wanted to ask… she would just ask. Either she’s confident she knows, or she’s decided she doesn’t need to. She’s always understood Neil was _his._ She’s just reminding him to be careful.

They’re family, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm qualifying it that way at any rate.  
There's really not much of a plot here tbh it's more character study but I hope you enjoy and if there's spelling mistakes everywhere it's because I'm on mobile or a terrible keyboard, pity me, and please point them out!


	4. Chapter 4

When Max calls him (from a pay phone apparently) to tell him she needs his help with dyeing her hair he immediately goes to clean the blood off of himself. 

(He’s been enjoying his time with his father, Neil hasn’t).

He’s known there’s no such thing as too careful since his mother saw what he really was and ran from it.

Max doesn’t need his help with dyeing her hair, she’d never dye it. She needs his help hiding a body, and they’d long come up with a way to convey that. (There were inevitable situations with people like them).

When he arrives at the specified location his headlights sharply illuminate two small figures, he won’t realize they both have blood splattered on their face until he’s closer though.

She had not mentioned her super powered friend was involved, but he’s not all that concerned.

Because El saw him in that mall, she saw the hurts, she saw the happiness, she saw the darkness.

And she placed her hand on his cheek and trusted him to save her anyway.

She is perhaps the second person he’s ever trusted in his life, and not only with his own secret, but with Max’s too. 

And because of that (well… that among other reasons) he doesn’t flinch when he sees what used to be a person, tucked away behind them.

The form is so twisted and crumpled, covered in blood, bones pushed into visibility, that it takes him a moment to realize it is a corpse.

He’s not afraid, he just meets the girl’s eyes.

Big and brown, not like his own or Max’s and not just because of the color.

She’s not wrong like them.

But she’s not entirely right either is she?

He feels a hand tug on his sleeve and turns to Max.

(She’s not got her mask on, he expected nothing else).

“He tried to attack us, he had a knife. El stopped him.”

She’s not justifying (she never needs to justify herself to him), she’s just explaining the situation, and he merely nods before going back to his car, turning it off, and grabbing the various supplies he had brought with him.

Gloves, rags, water, gasoline, a shovel.

He instructs the girls to help clean each other’s hair and face before getting to work.

He’s got a lot of work to do to make this go away.

By the time he’s done it’s late, and he takes Max home with him. (He insists on bringing El back to the Chief. He can’t have her at his house, there’s certain things even she doesn’t need to know about, not in detail). 

She asks him how long he’s going to be “bonding,” with his father and he can’t help but snort (it’s the only real gesture of amusement that he has), tells her it won’t be much longer.

The shovel is cleaned and propped by the basement door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've reached the end!  
Listen guys, I love El with all my heart, but it unnerves me how easily she can kill people and not lose any sleep over it, it bugs me more that canon continues not to address that and how dangerous it is. I totally understand how she's ended up that way, but it could lead down a very bad path if someone doesn't try to start teaching her you can't just snap your enemies' necks the second they get in the way.  
Shout out to anyone that catches the line from Dexter ;)


End file.
